Negotiating with a Captive Audience in Kennedy Heights, TX :

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Settling Environmental Justice Litigation with a Special Master

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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

2004

rok

It’s really hard not to just give up in despair, because you have to keep on living, regardless of the

circumstances you live in. And one thing is true about this, we do believe that there’s a being that

will look out for us, you know, a lot of people don’t think that’s popular, but it does give you some

comfort. Because I can’t go around saying oh, I live on top of a, I can’t do that, because I can’t

move. I have to work. But sometimes, that will creep in on you, but I don’t let it take me over –

Resident of Kennedy Heights, 2002.

Background. Whether viewed from the air or on the ground, Kennedy Heights does not evoke the

kinds of images that predominate in accounts of environmental injustice. Yet subtle clues of the

land’s history, which propelled residents through one of the most expensive (and to many involved,

costly) environmental justice lawsuits in history, emerge as one walks the streets of this

subdivision in southwest Houston. A plot of land is left undeveloped, sidewalks appear to have

buckled and cracked at certain points, and a few yards seem in the process of gradually sinking in.

Starker signs of environmental neglect are prevalent, but only to those who must daily question

their land, or find a way to justify putting it out of their minds. The locus of residents’ concerns is

the water.

Many Kennedy Heights residents appear to have abandoned trying to drink their tap water, but

stories of the many shades and smells of water used for cooking and bathing are still common. To

this day, some of the residents have not been given what they feel is a definitive account of

whether the source of these signs is a continuing threat to their health, or just an unfortunate

vestige of another time. This uncertainty is directly related to prior uses of the land upon which

Kennedy Heights was built, dating back many decades.